


flat whites and assholes

by Pyxyl



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship, also everything i know about dragon age i learned from my sibling so BUCKLE IN, listen kids i wrote this at like 11 pm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23156209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyxyl/pseuds/Pyxyl
Summary: All Fenris wanted was continue his routine, buying flat whites, and working his dead-end retail job.Then the asshole appeared with his two cats.
Relationships: Anders/Fenris (Dragon Age)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 35





	flat whites and assholes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluebeholder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebeholder/gifts).



Fenris was grumpy, and it was all some asshole’s fault. His day had started out like any other: wake up, go for a run, come back to his apartment, get ready, go to his boring job downtown, on the way to said job stop at Darktown for caffeine. Unfortunately, Darktown was where the asshole was. Up until three days ago, Darktown was Fenris’ favorite coffee place. They had the best dark roast espresso in town, made a good flat white, it was right across the street from his job – most importantly, the employees knew his order, which meant he didn’t have to talk to them. 

Then it switched ownership.

This switch in ownership came with a switch in baristas. Now, instead of a random grab-bag of college students making his coffee in silence, it was an asshole.

An asshole who didn’t know how to make a flat white.

An asshole who had two cats in the coffeeshop.

An asshole who was too tall, had annoyingly piercing hazel eyes, and a penchant for talking.

Fenris was grumpy, and it was all that asshole’s fault.

….

After leaving Darktown with his sub-par drink and bad mood, Fenris was convinced that the day couldn’t get worse. His job at a tourist junk shop, the Black Emporium, wasn’t exactly engaging, but he normally had shifts with Hawke, which meant they could poke fun at all the vacation dads, moody teens, and wine aunts that wanted to buy “It’s nice to have you in Kirkwall!” shirts. Today, however, he was alone on shift. Traffic was slow, and since the register was right by the window looking out on the street, he had a direct view into the window of Darktown – and a direct view of the asshole.  
Wiping down tables, talking to customers, petting his cats, the asshole never seemed to slow down. Unlike the Black Emporium, Darktown never seemed to not have a steady stream of customers. Fenris couldn’t decide if he hated that or not. Fenris did decide that the asshole wasn’t going to chase him off. He would have to keep going to Darktown.

….

A week went by, and Fenris still didn’t like the asshole. 

Sure, he learned the asshole’s name (Anders, a stupid name for a stupid cat-man), along with the names of the two cats (Ser Pounce-a-lot and Mr. Wiggums, two stupid names given by a stupid cat-man), but that didn’t mean his flat white got any better. If anything, the more Fenris learned about the asshole the more he thought about him, which was annoying. 

Learning that Anders used to work across town at Drakon (a pretentious coffee shop that didn’t have Wi-Fi so patrons could “reconnect like God intended” and an inability to have fewer than 6 crosses on their walls) and that he got fired because he took a baseball bat to their espresso machine after the owner’s son tried to poison Mr. Wiggums did NOT make Fenris want to be friends with the asshole. 

Discovering the asshole’s ‘pay-it-forward’ wall, a wall filled with sticky notes in case someone who couldn’t afford it wanted coffee, did NOT give Fenris the idea that the asshole might be someone worth being around. 

Fenris certainly still did not like him, his cats, or his terrible flat white.

….

A month in to owning Darktown, and Fenris had to hand it to him – Anders, the asshole, knew what he was doing. 

Darktown had stayed afloat under previous ownership, but under the asshole it was flourishing. So many patrons going in and out all day, with more coming all the time. It was to the point that the asshole was having to hire more employees.

Fenris was disturbed.  
That morning, he had gone about his normal routine – wake up, go for a run, come back to his apartment, get ready, go to his boring job downtown, on the way to said job stop at Darktown for caffeine. That was where his morning had deviated. When the asshole went to hand Fenris his coffee, not only had their fingers made contact, but Anders had looked down at Fenris with those annoyingly nice eyes of his and offered him a job. According to him, Fenris looked like he was “wasting away, unhappy and unfulfilled.” If he came to work at Darktown, he might be able to get out of his rut and start living his life. 

Quickly denying any semblance of unhappiness, Fenris had grabbed his coffee, wrenched his eyes away from Anders’, and practically run out the door. 

Fenris was perfectly fine with his life.

That asshole didn’t know anything about him.

But he did know what he was doing.

….

Fenris hadn’t gone to Darktown in 14 days, and he was miserable. 

Fine, he missed the asshole and his stupid cats. The asshole that seemed to actually care about him, his wellbeing; those cats that had stupid names. He didn’t even like cats – maybe the asshole had been poisoning his espresso?

No, that wasn’t it. Poison would have worn off in the two weeks Fenris had been a coward.

Every day, he passed by the window of Darktown and saw the ‘Now Hiring!’ sign in the window, and every day he ignored it and walked into the Black Emporium. 

He was fine. Fenris was fine. This was fine.

….

The situation was untenable. Fenris hadn’t gone in to Darktown in 15 days, and he was not fine. He just needed to suck up his pride, go back in, accept the job, then quit at the Black Emporium. Hawke had given their two-week notice yesterday and told Fenris their plans to go work at Darktown.

They had encouraged Fenris to get off his sorry ass and do the same.

Fenris knew they were right.

….

16 days after avoiding Darktown, and Fenris walked back in. Keeping his eyes carefully placed on the ground, he approached the counter and mumbled what he hoped shaped up to be an apology and an accepting of the job if it was still available. 

There was silence.

Fenris held his breath and kept looking down at his hand.

He saw a hand cover the top of one of his own.

He looked up into a blinding smile, Anders’ face transformed into a ray of happiness as he accepted Fenris’ job offer.

Fenris felt his heart stutter, and felt some new, strange, fluttery emotions flood in.

God dammit.

The asshole.

**Author's Note:**

> ALRIGHT KIDS LISTEN UP I have never played, watched someone play, or read anything DA-related, but my older sibling (bluebeholder) is obsessed and wanted more fic for their OTP Fenders. So here we are.
> 
> I did some research, dropped some fun references in there for anyone who has ACTUALLY consumed DA content, and kept Mr. Wiggums alive because, quite frankly, I love him.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [flat whites and falling in love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23223316) by [bluebeholder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebeholder/pseuds/bluebeholder)




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